Winter Overwhelm for Moms: Anxiety, Burnout & Nervous System Support | Chicago, IL
Winter Overwhelm: Why This Season Feels So Heavy (and What Actually Helps)
If you are feeling overwhelmed, irritable, isolated, and tired, you aren’t alone.
This is the part of winter that drags on and punctuates all of our stressors.
The holidays are over, the adrenaline is gone, the weather is still bleak, and spring feels like a rumor. For many over-functioning moms, this stretch of winter is where exhaustion, anxiety, and emotional depletion really show up.
And it’s not happening in a vacuum.
Why Winter Hits Harder Right Now
This season already asks a lot of our nervous systems—but right now, many people are living closer to the edge than usual. The current climate in the U.S. has left anxiety slightly elevated for a lot of families. Even if you aren’t consciously thinking about it, your body is tracking uncertainty, pressure, and unpredictability.
Layer that on top of very real, very tangible stressors, like:
Hormonal shifts in perimenopause, which can intensify anxiety, irritability, low mood, and fatigue
Paying for a thousand clubs, sports, and activities while finances feel tight and unforgiving
Caring for aging parents, often while quietly grieving the role reversal
Supporting kids with neurodivergences, navigating schools, appointments, emotional regulation, and advocating constantly
Leaving the house less in winter, which increases isolation even if you’re surrounded by people all day
None of these stressors are small. And when they stack, they don’t just affect your schedule, they affect your mood, patience, sleep, and sense of yourself.
The Emotional Weight No One Sees
This time of year can create a particular kind of emotional conflict.
On one hand, you may feel like you should be happy. You have things to be grateful for: you’re functioning and you’re getting the kids to school, folding laundry, driving to soccer, answering emails.
On the other hand, you feel flat, disconnected, snappy, or numb. Joy feels inaccessible. Rest doesn’t feel restorative. Everything takes more effort than it should.
That gap—between how you think you should feel and how you actually feel—creates discomfort. Over time, it can turn into:
Emotional disconnection
Quiet resentment
A sense of failure you don’t talk about
Feeling like you’re always behind, even when you’re doing everything
This isn’t a motivation issue. It’s not a mindset problem. It’s a nervous system under prolonged strain.
Why Identifying and Untangling These Patterns Matters
When overwhelm becomes chronic, your nervous system stays in a low-grade state of activation. You’re not in crisis, but you’re never fully settled either.
Untangling what’s happening internally is imperative because:
Chronic stress narrows your emotional bandwidth
It reduces access to creativity, joy, and patience
It keeps you functioning, but not thriving
It makes rest feel uncomfortable instead of reparative
The goal isn’t to push through winter harder. The goal is to work with your nervous system, not against it.
Below are three specific, practical ways to start doing that.
1. Ground Through Your Senses (For Connection and Regulation)
When your mind is spinning, your senses are the fastest way back into the present moment.
Try this:
Pause and name 5 things you can see
4 things you can feel (feet in shoes, back against the chair, fabric on your skin)
3 things you can hear
2 things you can smell
1 thing you can taste or like about this moment
This isn’t about calming down perfectly, it’s about reminding your nervous system that right now, you are here, and you are safe enough.
Sensory grounding helps reduce dissociation, emotional overload, and that “I’m here but not really here” feeling many moms experience.
2. Deep Breathing (To Manage Stress and Overwhelm)
When stress is high, breathing becomes shallow without you noticing. This signals danger to the brain—even when nothing urgent is happening.
A simple reset:
Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds
Exhale slowly through your mouth for 6–8 seconds
Repeat for 2–3 minutes
Longer exhales activate the parasympathetic nervous system, helping your body shift out of fight-or-flight.
This is especially helpful during:
Evening overwhelm
Post-work transitions
That moment when everything feels like “too much”
3. Engage the Vagus Nerve (For Rest and Repair)
Your vagus nerve plays a key role in emotional regulation, digestion, sleep, and resilience. Supporting it helps your system move toward rest and repair—something many over-functioning moms rarely access.
Gentle ways to engage it:
Humming or singing (yes, even quietly in the car)
Splashing cool water on your face
Gentle neck stretches
Slow, rhythmic movement like walking
These aren’t productivity hacks, they’re ways to help your body recover from ongoing demand.
How Therapy Can Help You Move Forward
Therapy is a space where we don’t just talk about stress—we work with how it lives in your body, your patterns, and your daily life.
Together, we can:
Identify what’s actually draining you
Untangle emotional and nervous system patterns
Build tools that fit your real life
Help you stay engaged without running on empty
You don’t need to wait until you’re completely burned out to get support. Winter is hard, and you don’t have to muscle through it alone.
If you’re ready to feel more grounded, supported, and steady, therapy can help you keep moving forward without pushing past yourself.
In Solidarity,
Jolene
